Raleigh police charge two men after five morning robberies

Police apprehended two men after foot chases Friday morning and charged them with five armed robberies on city streets earlier in the morning.

Denzell Lamont Serrell, 20, of Winter Park, Fla., and Christopher Raheem-Malik Lewis, 19, of Raleigh were each charged with five counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and one count of kidnapping.

Officers also charged Serrell with one count of assault by pointing a firearm, said Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.

Investigators charged the two men following a rash of armed robberies that began shortly after 2 a.m. Friday and ended just after daybreak at 6:20 a.m. The officers determined Serrell and Lewis were responsible for the crimes after noting that similar suspect and vehicle descriptions by the victims, Sughrue said.

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The first robbery occurred just after 2:30 a.m. when a gunman forced his way into a hotel room at 3215 Capital Blvd. where adults and juveniles were staying. The gunman fled the room after taking a cellphone and left in a dark-colored sedan driven by a second person.

Nearly two hours later, just before 4:30 a.m., a 54-year-old man told police he had just gotten out of his car in the 3700 block of Conquest Drive where two men, at least one armed with a handgun, robbed him of his wallet. The bandits drove away in a dark-colored sedan, Sughrue said.

At 5:45 a.m., a 56-year-old man reported that he was walking in the 4800 block of Hoyle Drive where a gunman got out of a dark-colored sedan and robbed him of his wallet, cellphone and book bag.

Minutes later, at 6 a.m., a 65-year-old man said he was walking in the 2900 block of Calvary Drive when a dark-colored sedan pulled up next to him. The driver asked for directions. The man began to respond when an armed man came up behind him and robbed him of his watch. The thief got into the sedan and fled with the driver.

At about 6:20 a.m., a 33-year-old man was walking from his home in the 5000 block of Windy Hill Drive when he was confronted by two suspects, one armed with a handgun, police say. The man’s wife saw what was happening, and the gunman pointed his weapon at her to prevent her from intervening.

The robbers ordered the walker into a dark-colored sedan and drove to a bank near the intersection of Falls of Neuse and Spring Forest roads with the aim of forcing him to withdraw money from an ATM. The victim managed to break free, and the suspects fled. The victim flagged down a Raleigh police officer, Sughrue said.

A man who was telling an officer about the robbery saw a car matching the sedan’s description whiz past. The dark-colored sedan traveled to Oak Forest Road and crossed Capital Boulevard. Oak Forest Road dead-ended a short distance east of Capital, and two people inside the car jumped out and ran.

Police caught up with Serrell near the sedan. Lewis was captured near East Millbrook Road, Sughrue said.

Police transported the men to the Wake County jail. Serrell is being held under $251,000 bail. Lewis is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, a jail spokesman reported Friday afternoon.